On the dawn of the fifth day, the bombs dropped. Hydrogen bombs hailed from the sky, careening towards the cities below, torpedoing their way into the ground. Bombshells would lodge themselves into the pavement for only a nanosecond before immediately detonating and practically expunging an entire city and off of the map whilst simultaneously purging the world of a population. The tempers of nations were hot and volatile, fire consistently being met with fire, and warheads were dispatched in response across the world, leaving poor mother earth in agony. It was a bitter, acrid end to modern human civilization; one many said we deserved for our constant warring over trivial and nominal things. However, this sharp ending to civilization, a war long past, of which the details are lost to history, is only the beginning.

Two hundred and fifty years after the Drop, the west coast of America has become an eternal desert. Russia has become an undying tundra, stuck in a perpetual cycle of nuclear winter. Civilization is just beginning to find it's footing again, with nomadic populations finally beginning to settle down and settlements and cities sprouting up in their wake. Fallout remains an issue in some areas, such as New York which was the target of many nuclear attacks, however, for most areas it has been a non-issue. Some members of the new world try to make their way through life by fair trade, whilst some see fit to rob and steal. There is no real empire or country yet, however, the seeds have been planted, and inklings are beginning to grow.

Our story begins on the dust-bowl that is the Western sea board of America, not far north from the ruins of Eureka in a medium sized settlement known simply as Eden. Rumors have circulated the wastes that a flourishing settlement has sprouted out of the ashes of Los Angeles, and has been coined as Angel City by weary travelers. Supposedly, the American government has been operating out of Angel City, and the idea that an authoritarian government might return to usher in a higher level of civilization again excites many across the New World. The long reaching vines of these tales have reached Eden. An expedition has been organized to put these rumours to rest once and for all; fool's gold, or a true god send?

I am your GM Inuyasha, and welcome to my roleplay lovechild, Dunes: Convoy! As you've already most likely inferred, this is a post apocalyptic roleplay which takes place two hundred and fifty years (exactly) after the Drop, which is when bombs were initially dropped, which plunged the world we know and love today into fatal chaos. This roleplay is certainly influenced by other post-apocalyptic titles such as Fallout and Mad Max, however, these are not the same universes, so don't get it twisted.

The story arc of this roleplay is based off of a single idea, a simple premise: getting from Point A to Point B. It is a simple idea, but the intricacies and complexities that come coupled with the difficulty of this task, are what makes the story interesting. In our case, our characters will be trying to make it from Eden to Angel City, like I said, point A to point B. There will be plenty of player interactions, perils and other obstacles which may present themselves to our protagonists to hinder or stop them from achieving their goal, and lots of opportunities for player growth. I plan on taking us through many different cities and maneuvering through different conflicts, each with their quirks. As said before, it's a simple premise, but its' the delicate intricacies of the story that it took to get you to Point B that make it interesting.

I myself am a very improvisational GM; I don't have a rigid scaffolding or story structure that the story must abide by. Whilst our convoy will have the intention of getting to Angel City, deviations and how we get there is up to the players. Personally, I do not like to create an event with the intention to lead a player down it perfectly and into my intended end. I create events, see how the players reacts, and continue on from there. In that same vein, the world I've created so far here is not rigid and ultimately is a springboard for you guys. Be liberal with your creativity, and don't be afraid to bring your ideas to the table for this roleplay.

The world is a perilous and callous one ever since the Drop. Bandits, famine, radiation, and mutants plague America. Settlements are peppered across America, however, the fate of the world outside of the U.S. is unknown. California has become a gargantuan and expansive desert which stretches along the west coast known as the Californian Desert. Entire old-world cities have been submerged in sand, with just the point ends of skyscrapers breaching the sea of sand, their hands stretched desperately toward the sweltering sun above. In other areas the level of sand is much lower, and the remains of cityscapes and skyscrapers are prominently poised high above the ground.

Humanity was able to survive through a series of large underground citadels which were constructed to house tens of thousands of citizens and act as a pseudo-city, all underground. These underground citadel cities were about 30 miles in diameter, and were built by the government as safeguards should nuclear fallout occur. Little did they know these citadels would save their populations chance at rebuilding. The location of these underground cities are lost to time, however, when found they are filled to the brim with valuable loot.

Food is not scarce perse, however it is not something to be wasted. Because farming is difficult in the almost completely infertile desert, it has become somewhat scarce to see a farm, however it is not impossible to farm in the desert. As a result, hunting and gathering has become very prominent in our ecosystem, with many hunters and gatherers alike selling their game and pickings at local markets in the settlements.

As a result of radiation, unexplained mutations have occurred in the wild. Animals may have horribly disfigured faces, grown to twice their size, or developed an unsettling extra limb. Some humans have been affected by radiation poisoning, and in most cases it results in a process known as "bruting." The affected have their bodies morphed and distorted by the radiation's effects, their skin and muscles splitting and enlarging, bones often protruding from their skin. The radiation also lowers the brute's intelligence significantly, to the point where they are little more than mindless beasts. Brutes are normally avoided at all costs, as they are colossal creatures not to be trifled with, that will not go down easy. There are many other unexplored affects of radiation poisoning, which have largely not been explored yet; ie the remnants of civilization do not know what other mutated creatures could be lurking.

Since the Drop, the U.S. government went completely dark, with not a single fragment of the establishment being heard from. Perhaps that is subject to change, with rumors of Angel City suddenly causing a forest fire in the residuum of civilization. The hopes that a return of the government could aid a rebuild of the U.S., perhaps even the whole world, and return stability to the lives of the people -- well let's just say those hopes are high, and perhaps you can see why.

In the wake of a lack of central government, an eclectic medley of factions have budded in it's place. A myriad of various paramilitary groups have been conceived, many of them starting settlements and "ruling" over them. Paramilitary groups protect their settlements, monitor trade, and make rules for their respective towns. Not all settlements are run by these groups, however, a good amount of them are. For our purposes, the only notable ones relevant to our story (so far) are "the Masks", the group who founded Eden. They are a powerful paramilitary group who are identifiable commonly by their gas-masks which they wear in combat.

💥 Usual shabang that you see on every other list and it's almost trivial to put it on a rules list because I'm sure every damn time you do a roleplay you see these rules and you're thinking to yourself, "Dear god, does this GM really think I am that stupid?" and you cringe at how many times you've seen this rule and -- and -- and -- okay, well: No godmodding, metagaming, ghosting, regular guild rules, fade to black, all that stupid stuff we've heard several times a day. Oh, and while we're at it, be respectful in OOC. There, that about covers it.

💥 Another cliche, but I am obligated to put it even though it goes without saying and you all have seen this many times before -- you must notify of your absences, otherwise you'll be booted and / or your character will be murdered in a fabulously spectacular fashion for all of us to enjoy. And with those two cliches out of the way, we can move on to the real rules that actually are new and matter . . .

💥 Shitposting in the OOC is the lifeblood of any roleplay. As strange as that sounds, the key to a long and healthy roleplay is a lively OOC with constant chatter. When the OOC gets quiet, that is a sign to me that my roleplay is beginning to go to the light, so keep the OOC talking and active and I'll be a happy GM (and don't be worried about shitposting in the OOC, I guess is what I am saying)

💥 I cannot stress how important collabs are to a roleplay. They move things along so much faster, they're great for character interactions whilst simultaneously building character relationships, they help the roleplay run a lot smoother, et cetera et cetera et cetera. I could go all day about why collabs are necessary for a roleplay to succeed, but I think the reasons why are self evident, so I'll just leave it at this: if you don't like collabs, this is not the roleplay for you. With that, write collabs with others as often as needed, and don't clog up the IC with simple back and forth dialogue.

💥 While this is a high casual roleplay, I recognize that we cannot always hammer out 2-3+ paragraphs, and eventually our writing just ends up being substance-less filler. For this reason, I'm not going to fault people for shorter posts every once in a while, as I get it that you can't always be expected to do so. However, 2-3+ paragraphs (w/ good grammar & spelling) would be appreciated, especially if it has good content and substance.

💥 Pictures are not required for CSes, but heavily preferred. I recognize that many people think this is mundane and absolutely ridiculous to require pictures, but personally it much more helps me visualize the character, but more importantly, I wanted to make portraits for our characters, and cannot do so without pictures. If you really feel absolutely and utterly obliged that you must write out your appearance, I will not stop you, but I just think it would be cool if we could all have portraits for our characters.

Before I throw this character sheet at you, I just wanted to say a few things; a foreword, if you will. First of all, please make your character sheets look nice. It just shows to me that you have put basic effort into not making your CS look like shit, and I would greatly appreciate it, as it would make it easier on my eyes. I know this makes me sound trite and picky, but I genuinely believe in having a neat and orderly character sheet. In that same school of thought, please don't post a WIP sheet, it just looks gnarly and tacky. Post the complete version, or don't post it all.

Secondly, don't fall into cliches and overload this roleplay with badass rambo warriors / fighters. I'm cool with having a couple of combat oriented characters, but I think we should have variation in our cast, and not clog and over saturate it with cliched fighting characters. So if you have an interesting idea for a character, I encourage you -- no, I implore you, to pursue that idea. Be creative, and don't be afraid to think outside the box a little. If you want your character to be descendant from tribal savages of the wasteland, then go for it -- I won't stop you if you have an interesting idea. In the same vein as that school of thought, try not to make your characters flawless and limitless. In other words, try to give your characters some weaknesses, whether they be physical or mental. I'm not going to hardpress this rule, but try to keep this in mind, as it makes for a better character when they're not perfect.

I know this should go without saying, but please make your CSes robust and detailed. I'm not looking for some skimpy five sentence character sheet, I'm looking for substance about your character, something that will really give me a look into who they are. I do expect a good amount of detail, and if you don't know what I'm talking about just look at one of my sheets.

Oh, and one last thing: all criticism I give on your CS is constructive. Please don't take it as a personal attack on you or your writing, and I will take all rebuttals / responses you have to my critiques in the same fashion. With that, here is the character sheet.